The history of the Philippines dates from the earliest hominin activity in the archipelago at least 709,000 years ago. Homo luzonensis, a species of archaic humans, was present on the island of Luzon at least 67,000 years ago. The earliest known anatomically modern human was from Tabon Caves in Palawan dating about 47,000 years. Negrito groups were the first inhabitants to settle in the prehistoric Philippines. By around 3000 BC, seafaring Austronesians, who form the majority of the current population, migrated southward from Taiwan.
A thalassocracy or thalattocracy, sometimes also maritime empire, is a state with primarily maritime realms, an empire at sea, or a seaborne empire. Traditional thalassocracies seldom dominate interiors, even in their home territories. Examples of this were the Phoenician states of Tyre, Sidon and Carthage; the Italian maritime republics of Venice and Genoa of the Mediterranean; the Chola dynasty of Tamilnadu in India; the Omani Empire of Arabia; and the Austronesian empires of Srivijaya and Majapahit in Maritime Southeast Asia. Thalassocracies can thus be distinguished from traditional empires, where a state's territories, though possibly linked principally or solely by the sea lanes, generally extend into mainland interiors in a tellurocracy.
A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it. Alternatively, a petty kingdom would be a minor kingdom in the immediate vicinity of larger kingdoms, such as the medieval Kingdom of Mann and the Isles relative to the kingdoms of Scotland or England or the Viking kingdoms of Scandinavia.
The Calamian Islands or the Calamianes is a group of islands in the province of Palawan, Philippines. It includes:
Peureulak Sultanate or Perlak Sultanate is the earliest sultanate in Southeast Asia, believed to have converted to Islam as early as the 9th century. The location of Peureulak is in what is now the East Aceh Regency, Indonesia.
In the history of Brunei, the Sultanate of Brunei or simply Brunei was a Malay sultanate, centred in Brunei on the northern coast of Borneo island in Southeast Asia. Brunei became a sovereign state around the 15th century, when it grew substantially after the fall of Malacca to the Portuguese, extending throughout coastal areas of Borneo and the Philippines, before it declined in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first ruler or sultan of Brunei was a Muslim. It became a British protectorate in the 19th century.
Butuan, also called the Butan Rajanate and the Kingdom of Butuan, was a precolonial Philippine polity centered on the northern Mindanao island in the modern city of Butuan in the Philippines. It was known for its mining of gold, its gold products, and its extensive trade network across the Nusantara area. The kingdom had trading relationships with the ancient civilizations of Japan, China, India, Indonesia, Persia, Cambodia, and areas now comprised in Thailand.
The known recorded history of the Philippines between 900 and 1565 begins with the creation of the Laguna Copperplate Inscription in 900 and ends with the beginning of Spanish colonization in 1565. The inscription records its date of creation in the year 822 of the Hindu Saka calendar, corresponding to 900 AD in the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, the recovery of this document marks the end of the prehistory of the Philippines at 900 AD. During this historical time period, the Philippine archipelago was home to numerous kingdoms and sultanates and was a part of the theorized Indosphere and Sinosphere.
Ma-i, or Maidh, was an ancient sovereign state located in what is now the Philippines.
Cebu, or Sugbu, also called the Cebu Rajanate, was an Indianized raja (monarchical) mandala (polity) on the island of Cebu in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. It is known in ancient Chinese records as the nation of Sokbu (束務). According to Visayan oral legend, it was founded by Sri Lumay or Rajamuda Lumaya, a minor prince of the Tamil Chola dynasty. He was sent by the Chola Dynasty emperor from Cholam to establish a base for expeditionary forces, but he rebelled and established his own independent polity. The capital of the nation was Singhapala (சிங்கப்பூர்) which is Tamil-Sanskrit for "Lion City", the same rootwords with the modern city-state of Singapore.
Southeast Asia was in the Indian sphere of cultural influence from 290 BCE to the 15th century CE, when Hindu-Buddhist influences were incorporated into local political systems. Kingdoms in the southeast coast of the Indian Subcontinent had established trade, cultural and political relations with Southeast Asian kingdoms in Burma, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Sunda Islands, Malay Peninsula, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, and Champa. This led to the Indianisation and Sanskritisation of Southeast Asia within the Indosphere, Southeast Asian polities were the Indianised Hindu-Buddhist Mandala.
Brunei and the Philippines have formal diplomatic relations. Brunei has an embassy in Makati, Metro Manila while the Philippines has an embassy in Bandar Seri Begawan.
Zhu Fan Zhi, variously translated as A Description of Barbarian Nations, Records of Foreign People, or other similar titles, is a 13th-century Song Dynasty work by Zhao Rukuo. The work is a collection of descriptions of countries and various products from outside China, and it is considered an important source of information on the people, customs and in particular the traded commodities of many countries in South East Asia and around the Indian Ocean during the Song Dynasty.
Singhapala was an ancient fortified city or a region, the capital of the Indianized Rajahnate of Cebu. The location of this ancient city is what is now the modern Barangay Mabolo in the northern district of Cebu City. Founded by Sri Lumay or Raja Muda Lumaya, a half-Tamil prince.
The polity of Sanmalan is a precolonial Philippine state centered on what is now Zamboanga. Labeled in Chinese annals as "Sanmalan" 三麻蘭. The Chinese recorded a year 1011 tribute from its Rajah or King, Chulan, who was represented at the imperial court by his emissary Ali Bakti. Rajah Chulan who may be like their Hindu neighbors, the Rajahnates of Cebu and Butuan, be Hindu kingdoms ruled by Rajahs from India. Sanmalan specifically being ruled by a Tamil from the Chola Dynasty, as Chulan is the local Malay pronunciation of the Chola surname. The Chulan ruler of Sanmalan, may be associated with the Cholan conquest of Srivijaya. This theory is corroborated by linguistics and genetics as Zamboanga is, according to anthropologist Alfred Kemp Pallasen the linguistic homeland of the Sama-Bajau people, and genetic studies also show that they have Indian admixture, specifically the tribe of the Sama-Dilaut.
The Confederate States of Lanao, also known as the Lanao Sultanate, is a collective term for four states named Bayabao, Masiu, Unayan, and Balo-i in Mindanao, Philippines.
Zhubing yuanhou lun, also known as Zhubing yuanhou zonglun or Chaoshi bingyuan, is a Chinese monograph comprising fifty volumes. Written during the Sui dynasty (581–618), its authorship has been popularly attributed to court physician Chao Yuanfang, although this is contradicted by some early sources. Discussing some 1739 syndromes and sixty-seven disease categories, the Zhubing yuanhou lun is the oldest extant medical encyclopedia on disease aetiology and symptomatology in traditional Chinese medicine.
Sandao, also known as Sanyu (三嶼) and Sanshu (三洲), were a collection of a prehispanic Philippine polities recorded in Chinese annals as a nation occupying the islands of Jamayan 加麻延, Balaoyou 巴姥酉, and Pulihuan 蒲裏喚. In the Chinese Gazetteer the Zhufan zhi 諸蕃志 (1225), they were described as tributary states of the more powerful nation of Ma-i centered in nearby Mindoro.
The Kingdom of Kumalarang or "古麻剌朗" in ancient Chinese texts, is a prehispanic Filipino and Yakan kingdom located on what is now the northwestern coast of Basilan island stretching until the Municipality of Kumalarang at the Zamboanga Peninsula, both places being named after Kumalarang.
